


The Damned Never Speaks

by Sashaya



Category: Dishonored (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Deaf!Corvo, F/M, Hurt/No Comfort, Mute!Corvo - Freeform, Romance, mostly - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-06
Updated: 2016-02-17
Packaged: 2018-05-12 07:15:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5657458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sashaya/pseuds/Sashaya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His world was always foreign and strange, darker and more violent. It didn't stop him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Jessamine Kaldwin

**Author's Note:**

> **_Disclaimer:_** _I don't own any of the characters._
> 
> Most of the chapters are checked and beta'ed by my favorite **Nehelena** \- love you dearest mine!

The first time Corvo Attano stood in front of Empress Jessamine Kaldwin, the young ruler thought him shy, uncivilized maybe. 

He looked at her with curious, depthless eyes and cocked his head to the side. 

Jessamine thought him strange.

Cute.

But strange.

 

 

It wasn’t long before the bright Empress understood that the man shadowing her every step wasn’t unkind but different.

Corvo was unable to speak and his ears didn’t work as her did. He didn’t hear any of her commands. 

He didn’t hear but he read her every wish before she could even voice them. 

 

Corvo impressed her.

 

He made her feel safe.

 

His silence slowly became something peaceful, serene and something that Jessamine craved after long days in court.

 

Jessamine was full with excitement, when Corvo revealed to her that he could write and read. 

Jessamine spent long evening hours writing letter and exchanging stories with Corvo.

It didn’t take long for her to understand that this strange, quiet man became her dearest friend. 

 

She made him promise to never leave her.

(Years later, Corvo will curse her and this promise, but now he bowed his head and didn’t hide his smile.)

 

Jessamine saw how her court treated Corvo, she saw the maliciousness and spiteful treatment. 

Corvo, her Corvo, didn’t deserve that, not with his open heart and sweet smile. 

So she started a rumor about their improper involvement. 

The first person, who asked Corvo about that, got a cold look and a cryptic smile. Later, he laughed at Jessamine and it sounded rough. Jessamine loved it.

Jessamine loved him.

 

It took some time, years maybe, before Corvo looked at her in the same way she looked at him. 

Their first kiss took them by surprise, as silly as this sound.

They poured over letters, bowed their heads over the candle and it was only natural to join their lips in something sweet, soft and gentle. 

 

It took them months to say their first ‘ _I love you_ ’. 

Jessamine whispered it to his back, while he slashed the enemies of the crown. 

(She never repeated these words, just held him close, held him tight.

He knew.)

Corvo wrote his first ‘ _I love you_ ’ in a letter, while on a mission too far away. 

After that, his every letter to the Empress contained an unreadable set of signs that only she could translate.

_I love you._

 

Emily was a gift for both of them. A promise, an eternal link connecting them better than marriage could. She was a blessing.

Even if the royalty shouted and spat at the sudden child with no father.

No-one dared to point at Corvo as the father. 

 

They liked it this way.

 

The first time Jessamine dreamt about moving shadows, Corvo was away on a mission and Emily just celebrated her 4th birthday.

Jessamine remembered begging for air, remembered her little girl bathed in blood.

It was the time of uneasiness at her court. 

Jessamine felt something dark and heavy in the air but she held her head high and walked with pride and strength. 

The Empress didn’t sleep well after that. From time to time, the dreams would come back and she would wake up with fear squeezing her heart.

Corvo never heard anything about it from her lips. Though, the Empress could feel his deep, worried eyes following her everywhere. 

 

The last time Empress Jessamine Kaldwin saw Corvo Attano, there was blood all around her and Emily was gone, stolen by the moving shadows. 

Corvo held her hand and read her for the last time:

_Save her._


	2. Hiram Burrows

The first time Corvo Attano stood before Empress Jessamine Kaldwin, the Royal Spymaster Hiram Burrows wondered what kind of garbage was brought to his dearest court. 

The man was dirty, clearly hadn’t bathed or even tidied up before the meeting and Hiram sneered at the Empress’ new toy. 

She had bad taste and too soft heart for someone in her position. 

If only Hiram was the Emperor, the Dunwall would bloom ( _with piles of corpses and diseases and despair_ ). The country would be strong and powerful. They would be real in power and strength. All it would take was a man on the throne, not a woman! Not a feeble and soft creature, which had no idea what real life looked like, what war was like. 

If only Hiram was the Emperor there wouldn’t be scum slumming down the palace. There would be no trash in positions that should’ve been given to people with the _right_ beginning. There would be no _things_ like Attano, waiting in the shadows. 

If only Hiram was the Emperor, the world would be right!

 

The first time Hiram noticed something _off_ about Empress’ lapdog, it was the Empress herself that gave him away. He was trying to show the woman how unsuited for a guard that… man was, how he never listened to commands and ignored the hierarchy. 

Empress looked at him like Hiram was mad and dismissed him, saying that was exactly the reason Corvo was her Protector. 

After that, Hiram watched the man, watched how he moved and reacted. Hiram seethed with anger when it turned out the Royal Protector ( _Hiram spat on that title, an insult to ones with proper upbringing_ ) was broken, a piece of garbage that wasn’t even wholly human.

Only something so low could be bereft of voice and ears.

 

The Royal Spymaster seethed with anger when the hired thugs fell one by one by the hand of a not-man. This was a farce! A joke from the Gods, that something so weak kept on coming back on his feet.

A bullet to the head should’ve taken care of that.

Hiram watched as Attano moved in sync with the shadows, as in some kind of deity kept him under their watch. 

This was outrageous. 

 

This was beyond anything proper or normal or…! A common blood mixed with a royal one. Not only Corvo and the Empress destroyed all rules, they created a bastard, an impure child that will be next to the throne.

He couldn’t let them.

 

There were months spent on plotting and planning. After a long wait, Hiram Burrows finally sat on the throne, called the Lord Regent, not yet the Emperor but all in due time. The Empress Jessamine Kaldwin was dead and buried, left a country in grief. Hiram didn’t pretend to mourn her, he did feel her loss. He wished she was stronger because she started to shine and for a second, Hiram saw a potential in her.

Well, what’s done was done. 

Hiram visited Corvo in the dungeons, taunted him with the Empress’ death. He might have also mentioned a horrible destiny that fell on _Lady_ Emily. He never understood how Corvo knew what was said but the fear, disgust, anger on the ex-royal protector’s face showed that Attano felt his every word.

Good.

 

The last time Hiram Burrows, the Royal Spymaster, the Lord Regent, saw Corvo Attano, it was when a blade pierced his body and he stared at the soulless, terrifying mask and Attano’s blood-thirsty eyes. Though, Attano never spoke a word, his eyes told Hiram everything.

 

Peace was not something he’d feel in afterlife.


	3. Daud

The first time Daud, the Knife of Dunwall, saw the new Royal Protector with his own two eyes, the man had been at the Empress’ side for years. Daud heard about the scrawny little thing in the court, the stray someone picked up and presented to the young Empress. He heard about the Empress taking a liking to this nothing-human and he found it strange, bit bizarre but he trusted his spies. He never saw the reason to meet the new Royal Protector in person.

He should have.

The first time Daud saw Corvo Attano was, when his sword pierced through Empress Jessamine Kaldwin’s body, stealing her life away. Later, he kept seeing her in his dreams, clinging to his sword, to life with strength he didn’t suspect in her. Later, he kept hearing her in his dreams but he never heard her beg for life, to spare her. With her last breath, she sent a curse his way and Daud knew Outsider found her to his liking.

Daud’s vision was red, stained by the royal blood. His ears were filled with the cries of little Lady Emily, pained sounds of the Empress’ last breaths. He never narrowed his world during his assassinations but this time, there was nothing else around him.

He never heard Attano. 

The Royal Protector never let out any sound. He moved wordlessly through Daud’s whalers till he reached the Empress. Daud barely escaped with his life. His spy network – the best of his spies that he cherished so much – never explained the phenomenon that was Corvo Attano. His employer never talked about Corvo Attano, maybe only to spit on the name, never explained him as a threat.

Later, Daud understood that the Royal Protector was deaf to the world, there was no sound that could escape him and he should’ve pity him, maybe underestimate him but Daud could only see the strength and abilities that no-one else possessed. Daud knew the Royal Protector was _broken_ but he could never call him that – not when he was the biggest threat Daud and his loyal whalers ever faced.

Delilah would probably laugh at that but Daud knew he was right. 

Daud expected Corvo to follow him, to slash and kill but the man didn’t pursue them. Corvo stayed by Empress’ side, clutching her hand and staring at her with something that Daud called love. 

In this moment, Daud understood that he sign his own death warrant. He knew he should have paid more attention to the man in the Empress’ shadow but he let his pride and experience rule out reason. Daud took the madman’s only anchor to sanity, his only reason to follow the rules. 

Daud knew he’d pay the biggest price for his transgression.

Later, when his dearest whalers laid lifelessly, scattered around the base, the place they all called home, safe haven, Daud would scream at the Outsider for his twisted games. 

Later, when Daud would stand face to mask with a wordless man and he’d recognize the silence as Corvo’s, he’d let out a sigh of relief. He’d fight Corvo because this was what his whalers expected giving up their life, because this was what Corvo needed on his revenge way.

Later, Daud would let out his last breath and his last words would be to his whalers.

_I’m sorry I didn’t see it coming._


End file.
